Little is known of the Rebbe's early life for the
simple reason that in those formative years, the bulk of his days
and nights were spent in private study.

Recognized by his teachers as a child prodigy,
the Rebbe outgrew formal cheder in his early childhood and was taught
by private tutors; soon he was studying on his own, under the guidance
of his father. In his teens, he was already corresponding with noted
Torah scholars several decades his senior.